A SOUTHEND stalwart who dedicated his life to the city is set to be immortalised in a new book.
“If you cut him in half, he’d have Southend running through him like a stick of rock…”
The life and achievements of Garry Lowen, a legendary Southend businessman who believed in living back to his community at every opportunity, will be immortalized in an upcoming book.
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Mr Lowen, best known for running the Gleneagles Guest House in Clifftown Parade, along with his wife Penny, 61, has spent his life serving Southend.
The city stalwart passed away in April, almost a year after being diagnosed Motor Neurone Disease.
“He is that sort of person who helped everyone, who helped everybody that need helped.” Penny said recalling her beloved husband.
“He was Southend through and through, and it was often said about him if you cut him in half, he’d have Southend running through him like a stick of rock.”
The book tells the tales of all the guests Garry met over the years.
One such guest, referred to as Tim, was visiting to meet his birth mother for the first time – with Garry recalling him a bag of nerves and in tears before the meeting.
However, the encounter was a success, and each time Tim came down, he stayed at Gleneagles.
“Before long he was meeting the whole family and then his visits to Gleneagles stopped,” the book says.
“I was concerned that something had gone wrong but then one day a lady called in.
"It was Tim’s Mum and she wanted to thank me for the support I had given her son.
"She explained that now when he visited, he stayed with her. It was a happy ending, or maybe that should be a happy beginning.”
Written by his cousin Sarah Atkins, all profits from ‘And then... Telling the story of the life in my years’ will be donated to Fair Havens Hospice, where Mr Lowen was cared for following his diagnosis.
“The draft of the book was finished before he died and in his last week friends visited and read him all the chapters,” Penny added.
On Saturday, September 3, Garry’s family and friends will be walking 20 miles around Southend to raise money for Fair Havens Hospice.
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